Amos Agate. 

It will soon be forty years since Amos Agate established his home in Newton 
County and it was in this locality that he won his material prosperity and his active years 
have not been unaccompanied by useful service in the advancement of community welfare. Mr. 
Agate is an Englishman by birth and was born in Sussexshire, November 18, 1849, a son of 
William and Mary (Holden) Agate. When he was seven years of age his family came to America 
in 1856, and settled in the country district some twenty or thirty miles from Chicago but 
in Cook County, Illinois, near Orland. The parents spent the rest of their lives there and 
are buried in the Orland Cemetery.
It was a country boy in Cook County that Mr. Agate spent his youth, attended the local 
schools, and made his first venture and his profits from farming. In 1876, he was united 
in marriage with Sarah Ann Nichols, who was born in Cambridgeshire, England, October 23, 
1845, the fourth of the seven children, three sons and four daughters born to William and 
Sarah (Jones) Nichols, but only two of this large family of children are living, Mrs. 
Agate and her brother Frank, who resides I Missouri. The parents are also deceased. Mrs. 
Agate was only five years of age when she came with her parents to the United States from 
her native land. After leaving the common schools, she attended the Cook County Normal, 
and was a successful teacher for four years, having taught seven terms in one district. 
She is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Brook.
In 1877, the year following his marriage, Mr. Agate came to Newton County and established 
his home in the southern part of Jackson Township. He was at that time young and vigorous, 
enterprising and ambitious, and soon had a considerable tract of land under cultivation and 
devoted to the raising of good grades of stock, He still owns that farm of 160 acres in 
Jackson Township, and also has a half interest in 170 acres in Michigan. His own farm has 
been well tiled and is still one of the model stock farms of the county and is under the 
management of his son. In 1903, Mr. Agate retired from active farming and has since lived 
in Brook, where he owns some town property.
He and his wife have two children: Ralph Holden, who completed his education at Rochester, 
Indiana, and is now secretary and treasurer of the Southern Industrial Institute of 
Lafayette, Indiana a state institution; by his marriage to Charlotte Rice he has a son 
Ralph Holden Agate, Jr. Lester William, the second son, conducts the home farm in Jackson 
Township and married Charlotte Eaton.
Mr. Agate in politics might be classed as a stand pat Republican. He has rendered 
considerable service to the town community of Brook, and was active in securing the 
establishment of waterworks. He has served as supervisor, and at one time was candidate 
for sheriff, being defeated by twenty-two votes. For about two years he served as deputy 
sheriff, and during two terms of the Legislature he served as doorkeeper of Senate. In 
1912, he was appointed by the county board or county assessor of Newton County and served 
the unexipired term. For three years he has been a member of the town board of Brook and 
has been a committeeman both in Brook and in Jackson Township. He is affiliated with the 
Knights of Pythias Lodge.


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